Wei Aimin, Xie Xinkai, Wen Zhen, Zheng Hechuang, Lan Huiwen, Shao Huiyun, Sun Xuhui, Zhong Jun, Lee Shuit-Tong
Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials and Devices, and Joint International Research Laboratory of Carbon-Based Functional Materials and Devices , Soochow University , Suzhou 215123 , China.
State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering , Zhejiang University , Hangzhou 310027 , China.
ACS Nano. 2018 Aug 28;12(8):8625-8632. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.8b04363. Epub 2018 Jul 25.
Hematite is one of the most promising photoanodes for photoelectrochemical (PEC) solar water splitting. However, due to the low conduction band position for water reduction, an external bias is necessarily required with the consumption of extra power. In this work, a titanium modified hematite (Ti-FeO) photoanode-based self-powered PEC water splitting system in tandem with a rotatory disc-shaped triboelectric nanogenerator (RD-TENG) has been developed. It is a fantastic strategy to effectively drive the hematite-based PEC water splitting by using the environmental mechanical energy through a TENG. When the rotation speed is 65 rpm (water flowing rate ∼0.61 m/s), the peak current reaches to 0.12 mA under illumination contrast to that in the dark with almost zero. As for 80 rpm, the peak currents are 0.17 and 0.33 mA in the dark or under illumination, respectively, indicating the simultaneous occurrence of electrolysis and PEC water splitting. When higher than 120 rpm, the peak current in the dark is nearly equal to that under illumination, which can be attributed to the high enough peak voltage for direct electrolysis of water. Such a self-powered PEC water splitting system provides an alternative strategy that enables to convert both solar and mechanical energies into chemical energies.
赤铁矿是用于光电化学（PEC）太阳能水分解最有前景的光阳极之一。然而，由于其用于水还原的导带位置较低，必然需要外部偏压，这会消耗额外的能量。在这项工作中，开发了一种基于钛改性赤铁矿（Ti-FeO）光阳极的自供电PEC水分解系统，该系统与旋转盘状摩擦纳米发电机（RD-TENG）串联。通过摩擦纳米发电机利用环境机械能来有效驱动基于赤铁矿的PEC水分解是一种很棒的策略。当转速为65转/分钟（水流速约0.61米/秒）时，光照下的峰值电流达到0.12毫安，而在黑暗中几乎为零。对于80转/分钟，黑暗中和光照下的峰值电流分别为0.17毫安和0.33毫安，这表明电解和PEC水分解同时发生。当高于120转/分钟时，黑暗中的峰值电流几乎与光照下的相等，这可归因于用于直接电解水的峰值电压足够高。这样的自供电PEC水分解系统提供了一种替代策略，能够将太阳能和机械能都转化为化学能。
